Tulpen uit Amsterdam (Tulips from Amsterdam)
by Vendelle
Summary: Spike is in Amsterdam in the 1890s, looking for a Slayer to kill. Will he find her?? My first attempt at angst. Please read and review!


Title: Tulpen uit Amsterdam (Tulips from Amsterdam)  
  
Author: Adora_Vampiress  
  
Summary: It's Autumn 1890 and there's a stranger on the prowl in a very rainy Amsterdam.  
  
Feedback: Yes please! You can send it to adora@planet.nl  
  
Notes: Thanks to Cestruma for giving me this wonderful idea and for betareading this fiction for me. I dedicate this fic to you. I'd also like to thank Miss Binks for betareading this story for me.  
  
*~*~*  
  
"Bloody rain," he muttered as he turned up the collar of his coat.  
  
Who would have thought one country could evolve around water as much as this? People drink it, bathe in it, use it to cook and clean with it. But it doesn't end there, oh no. Some people even live on the water, it's used to make mills work and boats are used to transport goods and people from one place to another. Oh, and don't forget those ruddy boat trips for tourists. As if anyone would want to see the fronts of all those canal side houses. No thanks. I'm busy enough as it is. Finding the Slayer isn't as easy as it seems, especially on an empty stomach. And since Dru is with Angel now, I also lost my paranormal guide. Dru may have been crazy, but somehow she always knew how to spot certain people. And the Slayer isn't just anyone.  
  
He looked around searching for something. He stood in a dark alley, close to the main street, unnoticed by anyone. He had been there since sundown, standing still as a statue - it seemed like he didn't even breathe.  
  
Suddenly, a smile curved his lips. If the people in the main road had seen him at that moment, they would have been dumbstruck. His marble skin and sharp cheekbones seemed to cut the darkness around him to pieces. Somehow, he was radiating light. The only thing that disturbed the perfectness of the image was the look on his otherwise angelic face: the smile that curled his lips didn't seem to reach his eyes, which gave his face a cruel look.  
  
The young man stepped out of the shadows and started crossing the street. While his features looked young, in his late twenties, there was something about his movements that suggested great age. He didn't blink and kept looking at the same person across the street. When he reached the other pavement he pretended to examine a book in one of the shop windows. As soon as the girl he had been spying on said goodbye to her friend and started to walk towards him, he turned and 'accidentally' bumped into her.  
  
The girl shrieked and staggered, about to fall on the muddy street. He quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him. When he felt that she stood steadily, he let go and took a step back.  
  
"I am very sorry," he said with a bow. "I was so engrossed in this book that I did not see you. Are you alright?" He looked into her big amber eyes questioningly.  
  
The girl smiled kindly as she replied in fluent English: "Thanks to your quick reaction, I am not hurt. I am just a little startled, that is all."  
  
"Please allow me to buy you something to drink, to make up for my bumping into you," he offered.  
  
The girl looked him up and down - he could sense her doubt: should she follow her mind and turn him down, or follow her heart and accept? He caught her eye and persisted: "Please, I'd feel awful letting you go home like this. And if it's the walk home you worry about - I will of course make sure you get home safe." This seemed to resolve the matter. The girl's face cleared and her eyes sparkled.  
  
"All right then. Where shall we go?"  
  
"How about the bar in the Amstelhotel?" he suggested, expertly picking out the most expensive hotel in town. "That's where I'm staying."  
  
The girl nodded. "And it's quite close to my father's house, we can walk from there."  
  
"That's a lucky coincidence," he replied, holding out his arm for her to take. "Shall we go then Miss...?"  
  
"Hooghhuys, Marieke Hooghhuys."  
  
"Shall we go then, Miss Hooghhuys?"  
  
"We shall!"  
  
*~*~*  
  
As they walked towards the hotel in silence, he smiled to himself.  
  
Angel couldn't have done it better himself. As if he could ever beat me in anything, the stupid prat. "Observe your master and learn from it, boy," he once said. Somehow, he always called me 'boy' when he needed an ego- boost. I must say he did have that girl falling for him within seconds. He just walked up to her, kissed her hand and said: "Excuse me, madam, for walking up to you like this, but I couldn't pass you without complimenting you on your extraordinary beauty." I don't understand why women still fall for crap like that. But I'll show him something he'll never forget...  
  
"Why are you so quiet?" Marieke inquired.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry, I was thinking of someone I once knew. He - he always used to say I was awful with women. He said I behave like a rhinoceros in a porcelain-shop. I was only hoping that I have improved since then," he lied.  
  
"You most certainly have," Marieke replied with a smile. "I was just thinking how er... oh, how do you say that? Er... oh yes, how gentlemanlike your behavior to me is."  
  
"I am glad to hear it, madam, because a beautiful lady like you deserves no less than the best."  
  
The girl blushed shyly and turned her head away to hide it.  
  
"I'm sorry if I make you feel uneasy, but I must speak the truth. English girls are neither so pretty nor so amiable as Dutch girls."  
  
Where do I get this nonsense? Bloody hell, she's got to see I'm playing with her.  
  
Marieke, however, smiled proudly.  
  
"Ah, there's the hotel," she said as they reached it. They walked straight to the bar, where they chose a table at the back, a little secluded from the others by huge palm trees that stood in large flower pots. As he held out her chair, a waitress came closer.  
  
"How may I help you?" she asked them politely, her pencil and notebook ready.  
  
He gave Marieke an encouraging look at which she ordered a cup of tea and he ordered a beer for himself.  
  
"So, Miss Hooghhuys..." he started.  
  
"Please, call me Marieke. I don't like being called 'Miss'," the girl smiled.  
  
"All right, er.... Mareeken... what I was going to ask you... Since I am new to town, could you tell me where the church is here? I'd like to go there tomorrow, but I have no idea where it is."  
  
As Marieke started giving him directions to a few different churches, he took in her form and clothing. She wore a dress made of a fine fabric, a lot like muslin. It was cut according to the newest fashions: not the wasp waists that had been fashion before, but the new reform-look. She wore a hat that was decorated with ribbons and feathers. He couldn't see her shoes, but her hands were far more noticeable. When they had been outside she had been wearing long-sleeved white gloves, but now she had taken them off. There were no rings on her fingers, but nonetheless her manicured nails showed she was from a rich family.  
  
"So, do you think you will be able to find it?"  
  
He started, but hid it with a small smile. "Yes, thank you for the information."  
  
The girl looked at the clock and gasped.  
  
"Oh no! I really should go now, my father will be very worried about me!" She picked up her gloves and quickly put them on. "I'm sorry that I have to leave you so suddenly. Thanks for the tea."  
  
"Wait, I'll walk you home. It isn't safe for a woman alone." He quickly pulled on his coat and offered her his arm once more, which she gladly took.  
  
The way to Marieke's house was a silent one. They were each engrossed in their own thoughts. When they reached her father's house, he found out what she had been thinking of.  
  
"Please come inside," she said when she had rang the doorbell. "I'm sure my father would like to thank you for bringing me home safely. You can also get dry before you get back into this weather again."  
  
He was about to accept when he heard noises behind him. His vampyric hearing told him that there was a large group of people coming closer. He knew he could take on a few men, but this wasn't the right place to pick a fight. Not if he wanted to get away unharmed. He'd have to come back for her.  
  
"Well? Will you come inside?" Marieke asked again.  
  
"No, thank you," he said as a man in a butler's uniform opened the door. "I have taken up enough of your time. I will go back to the hotel now. Good evening Miss Hooghhuys." He bowed and kissed her hand.  
  
"Good evening, Mr. ..."  
  
"William, just William."  
  
"Good evening, William."  
  
He turned and walked away, turning up his collar and cursing the weather under his breath.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Holland was the weirdest country he had ever seen. The day before it had rained incessantly, and it had seemed destined to go on all month. This evening, however, it was warm and sunny. When the sun had finally set, he went outside and ten minutes later he stood in front of Marieke's house with a bunch of flowers in his hand. He rang and when the butler opened the door, he asked if he could see Marieke.  
  
"I'm sorry, sir," the butler said with a slight bow. "Miss Hooghhuys has gone to the Concertgebouw with Mr. and Mrs. Hooghhuys. I will tell her you called, Mr. ..."  
  
"Thank you, but that won't be necessairy. I will call again tomorrow night."  
  
"As you wish, sir," the butler said stiffly.  
  
"Good evening."  
  
"Good evening, sir."  
  
The next thing he heard was the click as a sign that the door was being locked.  
  
On to the Concertgebouw it is, then.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
He saw her the moment she walked into the green room. As her father went to get their coats, Marieke and her mother chatted happily. When they went outside and started to walk home - Mrs. Hooghhuys was in raptures over both the weather and the concert - he followed them from a distance.  
  
In the darkness of the night he could almost feel a sense of ecstatic joy that was ratiated by Marieke. She was babbling happily, her eyes sparkling and her teeth shimmering in the dim lamplight. Suddenly, his mind shot back to that day a few years ago, when he had been stalking a rich couple just the way he was stalking Marieke. There had, however, been one very important difference: in those days, Dru had been stalking alongside him.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
"Now don't do anything stupid this time," she said to him. "Just go to her, feed, then leave. I'll take him."  
  
"Yes Dru," he said, muttering a curse under his breath.  
  
"Watch out William, you should be careful what you wish for. It might come true." She turned her dark eyes to him and ran her hand through his hair. "Such a pretty face," she said. "Like an angel. But angels fall and will have their wings ripped off like butterflies. But one butterfly will strike back. It will kill its attackers. Only one will survive and hunt him down. Let's go I'm hungry."  
  
He stared at her for a moment, not sure if this had been one of her clear or her crazy moments. In the end he shrugged mentally and held out his arm. She took it and together they walked down the street.  
  
"There they are." He pointed them out for her.  
  
Her face lit up and she squeezed his arm excitedly. "They're perfect!"  
  
They picked up their step and followed the couple home. When they were in front of their house, Drusilla and Spike emerged from the shadows. Dru was the first to speak. "Excuse me," she said, looking scared. "My husband and I were going to the theatre, but we're new in town and we got lost. Could you tell us where to go? We've been wandering around for hours." She even managed to squeeze out a few tears. The woman immediately took Dru's hand and started shushing her.  
  
"Shh, don't worry. Everything will be alright. Come inside with us for a moment and have something to drink. Then we will give you directions to wherever you'd like to go."  
  
"Thank you, you're very kind. My wife is expecting, and of course I can't let her get too much excercise."  
  
"Of course not."  
  
They got inside and to the living room, where Dru immediately went to the fireplace to check out the pictures on the mantle.  
  
"Oh, what a lovely picture! Look William, isn't it the cutest picture of the happiest family you can imagine?"  
  
Before he could rise to see the picture, the man took it, sighing. "Yes, we were very happy then. We couldn't have expected to lose our son only days after this picture was taken."  
  
Drusilla looked shocked and patted the man's hand. "I'm so sorry I brought it up. May I ask how you lost this beautiful boy?"  
  
"A few days after this picture was taken we took our son to a museum. We only turned our backs for three seconds to examine a painting, but when we turned to take him by the hand again, he had vanished."  
  
The man's voice broke, at which Dru put an arm around him.  
  
"Of course we hope the police will find him, but it has been three months now, and still there's no sign of him," his wife continued. She suddenly started to cry. Spike walked up to her and handed her his handkerchief, Looking up at Dru, he nodded slightly.  
  
"I'm hungry," Dru started to whine. "Would you mind if I would have some food here? The baby is sucking up all my energy and I think it needs more than I can offer right now."  
  
"But of course," the man said politely as he dried his eyes. "What would you like to eat?"  
  
Dru shifted into game face and pulled him towards her, whispering: "You," before biting into the man's neck.  
  
Before his wife even realized what was going on, Spike too had showed his demon visage and started to feed on her. When he was done, he dropped the lifeless body on the floor, took as many things of value as he could carry, and calmly left the house with Dru on his side.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
As he reached Mariekes house once again, he scowled at Dru under his breath. I'll make her pay for leaving like that. I swear, I will make her pay.  
  
Suddenly, Marieke looked over her shoulder. He slumped back, trying to hide behind a few people who were just passing him. Mariekes father asked his daughter something as he handed his coat to the butler. She answered and disappeared into the house with her smile, that somehow reminded him of Dru's, splitting her face in two.  
  
Dru...  
  
She had left him a short while after they had killed that couple. Left him for that bloody poof Angel. He scowled and repressed the urge to get incredibly drunk. That would have to wait.  
  
When he looked up. he could see a room upstairs had been lighted. Before he had moved a muscle, a figure appeared in the window. He stepped forward into the lamplight when he recognised Marieke.  
  
"Hello again, Mareeken!" he called up.  
  
"Shh! William, be quiet! If my father catches you, he'll be furious! He doesn't want me to talk to men he doesn't know."  
  
"That didn't stop you yesterday," he muttered under his breath.  
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
"I'm coming up."  
  
Without listening to her half-whispered protests that he'd surely fall and that her father would kill him, he started climbing up the wall, using the irregular tones of the patterns around the windows to pull himself up. Within seconds he was in Marieke's room. Marieke quickly closed the windows and locked the door.  
  
"Why did you come here?" She asked, turning around to lean back against the door.  
  
He shrugged. "I just wanted to see you." He held out his hand and gave her the flowers. "Here, I bought these for you."  
  
She took them and smiled. "That's so sweet. I love tulips." She stepped closer and lovingly stroked his cheek. "You're sweet."  
  
He took her hand and kissed it. "You remind me of a girl I once knew," he said. "She had the same smile as you."  
  
She sat down on her bed and motioned for him to join her. As he did so, she tookhis hand. "Did you love her?"  
  
"Yes, I loved her with all my heart," he said truthfully.  
  
"What went wrong?" She gazed into his eyes.  
  
He sighed deeply. "She left me for an older man with more muscles and a caveman brow."  
  
She gasped in shock. "That's awful! I can't imagine anyone leaving you for someone like that. You're practically an angel!"  
  
"It funny you should say that. Thay was his name." He carressed her hand and added bitterly: "You would have left me for him too. Everyone always falls for Angel and Angel always want the same things I want."  
  
She stroked his face so gently, he thought he would rip her throat out immediately, if only to stop her hands from tickling his skin. "William, I'm sorry to hear she left you. But you shouldn't let her ruin your life,"  
  
"I don't have a life."  
  
"Oh, of course you do. She can't be that important to you. She didn't kill you, I see you sitting right here and right now. You're as alive as anyone!"  
  
He gripped her wrist. "Trust mewhen I say I 'm not."  
  
She suddenly got scared and tried to get away. "Let me go. You're hurting me! William, how do you mean? Stop this nonsense!"  
  
He pushed her back on the bed abd pinned her down with his body.  
  
"Let me tell you a secret," he whispered, stroking her hair. He smelled her fear and revelled in it for a moment before showing her his demon visage and whispering: "I'm not human."  
  
He saw her eyes go wide, but he gave her no time tio scream for help. He sank his teeth into her neck and drank deep.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Ten minutes later he was on his way to the docks. Okay, I feel better now. Let's go find that Slayer. 


End file.
